Systems and methods for implementing email delivery

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to systems and methods for managing emails where an email server that may comprise one or more computer systems, and which may be part of an email system, receives an email addressed to a specified first user. The email server may analyze the received email and access one or more electronic databases, which may comprise information related to one or more respective registered users of the email system. The databases may be stored on one or more computer-readable storage media operatively connected to the email server.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of andpriority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/948,468, entitledSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING EMAIL DELIVERY and filed Apr. 9,2018, which in turn is a continuation of and claims the benefit of andpriority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/043,206, now U.S. Pat.No. 9,967,220 entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING EMAILDELIVERY and filed Feb. 12, 2016, which in turn is a continuation of andclaims the benefit of and priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/826,544, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING EMAIL DELIVERYand filed Mar. 14, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,306,887. The contents ofthese applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods forscreening and managing non-authorized emails.

SUMMARY

In embodiments, the invention relates to systems and methods formanaging emails where an email server that may comprise one or morecomputer systems, and which may be part of an email system, receives anemail addressed to a specified first user. The email server may analyzethe received email and access one or more electronic databases, whichmay comprise information related to one or more respective registeredusers of the email system. The databases may be stored on one or morecomputer-readable storage media operatively connected to the emailserver.

In embodiments, the information related to the users of the email systemmay include profile information, including identification informationfor the respective registered users, whitelist information, indicatingone or more individuals and/or email addresses approved to send email tothe respective registered users, email message data, including emailmessages accessible to the respective registered users through an emailinterface, queue information, including queued email messages assignedqueue positions and not being accessible to the respective registeredusers through an email interface, and password information, includingwhitelist password codes and queue advancement password codes for therespective registered users. The email server may then determine whetherthe received email is approved to be sent to the first user based atleast in part on the whitelist information. The whitelist informationmay comprise the IP address of the originator of an email, the emailaddress of the originator of an email, or alphanumeric codes associatedwith the originator of an email. Similarly, the same information may bestored for non-whitelisted email originators.

Following a determination that the received email is not approved, theemail server may store the received email as a queued email message, andassigns a queue position to the received email. The email server maythen send to a device associated with the received email, a notificationmessage indicating that the received email has not been delivered to thefirst user and indicating the queue position of the received email. Uponreceipt by the email server of a request to advance the received emailqueue position, the request including a queue advancement password code,the email server then may determine whether the received queueadvancement password code is valid. The queue advancement password codemay be provided to the originator of the queued email following theprovision of monetary consideration or non-monetary consideration, inthe form of, but not limited to, the viewing of an advertisement orregistration with the email system. Based at least in part on adetermination that the received queue advancement code is valid, theemail server may update the queue information for the first user so thatthe queue position of the received email is advanced.

In embodiment, the invention also relates to methods and systems foraccessing, by the email server, one or more electronic databases, whichmay be stored on one or more computer-readable storage media operativelyconnected to the email server. The databases may comprise informationrelated to one or more respective registered users of the email system,including but not limited to profile information includingidentification information for the respective registered users,whitelist information indicating one or more individuals and/or emailaddresses approved to send email to the respective registered users,email message data including email messages accessible to the respectiveregistered users through an email interface, queue information includingqueued email messages that may be assigned queue positions and not beingaccessible to the respective registered users through an emailinterface, queue preference information indicating one or more deliverypreferences for the queued email messages becoming accessible emailmessages to the respective registered users.

The email server may determine, based at least in part on the queuepreference information for the first user, whether a queue delivery timehas arrived to convert one or more queued email messages to emailmessages accessible to the first user. The queue delivery time may bespecified by the user via a date, a time period for which to maintainemail messages in the queue, a limit on the number of email messages tomaintain in the queue, the size of the queue in terms of computermemory, or any other means suited to the job. Based at least in part ona determination that the queue delivery time has arrived, the emailserver may identify one or more queued emails to convert to accessibleemail messages, also based at least in part on the queue preferenceinformation. The queue preferences may specify the number of emails todeliver from the queue, based at least in part on an absolute number,which may be set by the user or selected automatically by the emailsystem, based at least in part on a percentage of the number of emailsin the queue, based at least in part on a percentage of the user'sinbox, or based at least in part on any method suited to the job.

After determining the number of emails to deliver from the queue, theemail server may update one or more databases so that the one or moreidentified queued email messages are stored as email messages accessibleto the first user. The email server may then notify the user by sendinga message to an address or device associated with the user indicatingthat one or more queued email messages have been provided to the emailaccount associated with the user.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will be more fullyunderstood with reference to the following detailed description whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic system diagram of an email system operativelyconnected to one or more client devices and one or more third partysystems (optional) according to exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2A is a schematic representation illustrating an email system andassociated components according to exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2B is a schematic representation illustrating data stored by anemail system according to exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary method for processingemails in an email system according to exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 3A is an exemplary screenshot illustrating a notification accordingto exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary method for processingemails in an email system according to exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary method for processingemails in an email system according to exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5A is an exemplary screenshot illustrating a notification accordingto exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In exemplary embodiments, the present disclosure describes systems andmethods for implementing an email system for screening and managingemails.

FIG. 1 shows, according to exemplary embodiments, an email system,designated by reference number 10, which may be operatively connected toone or more client devices 20 a, 20 b, 20 c, . . . 20N, collectivelydesignated reference number 20. The one or more client devices 20 may beany devices including, for example, any type of desktop, laptop,smartphone (e.g., iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, to name afew), tablet device (e.g., iPad, iPod Touch, Kindle, Android, MicrosoftSurface, Chrome Book, to name a few), and/or any other suitablecomputing device(s), etc.

The email system 10 can operatively connect with one or more third partysystems 30 a, 30 b, . . . 30N (collectively 30) in accordance withexemplary embodiments described herein. The third party networks 30 maybe of information systems, businesses, organizations, individuals,content providers, web sites/web servers, media companies, cable/ISPproviders, etc.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , each of the connections between the emailsystem 10, the client devices 20, and/or the third party systems 50 maybe made directly or indirectly. For example, such connections may befacilitated by be one or more networks, referenced herein as network 50for convenience. The network 50 may include, for example, the Internet,a cellular network, WAN, LAN, Wi-Fi, or other private or publicnetworks.

According to exemplary embodiments, the email system 10 may beimplemented using web based email, POP email servers, IMAP emailservers, MAPI email servers, and the like, to name a few. The emailsystem 10 may implement one or more processes for screening, managing,and/or presenting email messages. In some exemplary embodiments, suchprocesses may be implemented as add-on software that compliments anemail program or client, such as, for example, Outlook, Sparrow,Thunderbird, etc.

FIG. 2A shows, according to an exemplary embodiment, a block diagramrepresentation of the email system 10. The email system 10 may comprisean email server component 15 a, email filter component 15 b, emailparser 15 c, whitelist manager 15 d, a queue manager 15 e, amiscellaneous component 15 f, and one or more electronic databases 40.The one or more components, may be operatively connected to one or morecomputer networks 50, such as, for example, the Internet, or any othersuitable network, via, by way of example, a set of routers and/ornetworking switches, to name a few.

The components of the email system 10 are shown to be located togetherin FIG. 2A. It is to be understood that in some embodiments thecomponents of email system 10 may be combined or separated in anysuitable manner. For example, one or more components may be locatedtogether on one or more computer systems that are operatively connectedto other components of the email system 10.

In exemplary embodiments, the email server 15 a may be configured toreceive, obtain, store, retrieve, and the like, email messages. Theemail server 15 a may be implemented using any suitable email protocolsand using any suitable combination of hardware and/or software.

In exemplary embodiments, the email filter 15 b may be any softwareand/or hardware processes for analyzing and/or determining the deliverylocation of received emails. For example, the email filter 15 b mayanalyze incoming emails and determine whether the received emails are tobe delivered to an inbox, to be sent to one or more folders, to beforwarded to one more other email addresses, to be blocked and/or to besent to a spam folder, and the like, to name a few. In some embodiments,the email filter 15 b may implement one or more processes to analyze thestructure and/or content of the email message, including reviewing forand analyzing any of the IP Addresses associated with the email, theemail address of the sender, one or more alphanumeric codes locatedwithin the email address, etc. In this regard, the filter may determinewhether a particular email is associated or from an address that isauthorized and/or “whitelisted”. For example the email filter 15 b mayaccess a whitelist directory associated with the recipient user, so asto determine whether a received email is authorized. This may beaccomplished by reviewing one or more of the incoming email's IPaddress, email address, alphanumeric codes, etc., and comparing to thewhitelist directory to see if it is associated with a whitelisted entry.

In exemplary embodiments, the whitelist manager 15 d may be responsiblefor implementing processes for utilizing and/or maintaining a whitelistassociated with a user of the email system 10. In this regard, thewhitelist manager 15 d, among other features, may allow a user tospecify one or more users to be whitelisted. The whitelist manager 15 dmay provide an interface allowing a user to manage entries in the user'spersonal whitelist directory. In some embodiments, the whitelistdirectory may allow a user to specify addresses. In some embodiments,the whitelist manager may electronically obtain a list of approved emailaddresses which are to be whitelisted. In some embodiments, a userthrough such an interface provided by the whitelist manager 15 d, mayspecify that emails from one or more types of domains (e.g.,[sample].com) are whitelisted. Further the interface may also allow auser to specify/generate whitelist codes, e.g., alphanumeric codes suchas a PIN and the like, which are to be used by email senders to ensurethat an email sent by them reaches the email user. In this regard, thewhitelist manager 15 d may generate such one or more codes which are tobe distributed in any suitable manner. Such codes may be provided to theemail system 10 and/or inserted in an appropriate location of emailssent to the user, so as to allow emails to be delivered to the intendeduser recipient. The code may be used to allow one or more emailaddresses to be whitelisted, and thus allow future emails from thataddress to be delivered to the recipient user, in accordance withembodiments described herein. In embodiments, the email system 10 orequivalent may use one or more of the methods, alone or in combinationwith other, and/or with other methods.

In exemplary embodiments, the queue manager 15 e, may be responsible forimplementing processes for managing queued emails. In embodiments,received emails addressed to a recipient user of the email system 10,may be blocked from delivery, and additionally, may be placed in aqueue. In some embodiments, each of the emails that are queued may alsobe assigned and/or associated with a number and/or other signifierindicating the position of the emails in the queue. The queued emailsmay be ordered according to the time/date of when they are received inthe email system.

In exemplary embodiments, the queue manager 15 e may forward or deliverone or more queued emails to the inbox or other appropriatefolder/destination associated with the intended recipient user. Thequeue manager 15 e may forward one or a set of emails at various times.These times may be times that are evenly spaced apart, and/or one ormore set times, for example, every 3 PM on Tuesday. In some embodiments,the queued emails may be forwarded to the recipient according torecipient user specified times.

The queued emails may be forwarded according to a FIFO (first in, firstout) system. Other orders of priority may also be used. For example, aspecified set number of emails (e.g., the 10 highest ranked emails, thetop 10% highest ranked emails, etc.) may be forwarded at the specifiedtimes. The amount or number of emails forwarded may be set according toemail system 10 and/or according to the recipient user. In some cases,the number of emails to be forwarded at a particular time may bedependent on the number of emails currently queued. In embodiments, theuser may be able to set the number of emails to be forwarded either bytotal number, percentage or some other variable.

After forwarding one or more emails in the queue to the recipient user,the order of the remaining queued emails may be adjusted according toany suitable manner in accordance with embodiments herein.

While a FIFO-like system may be used for determining how toforward/deliver emails to the recipient user, other variations or othermethodologies for determining which emails to forward may be used inaccordance with embodiments disclosed herein.

In exemplary embodiments, the whitelist manager 15 d may notify a senderthat their email has been queued through any suitable manner (email,text, fax, automated telephone call, etc.). Such notifications mayindicate the sender's email place in the queue, e.g., #500 out of 1000emails, in one example. FIG. 3A shows an exemplary notification embodiedas an email in accordance with embodiments herein.

In exemplary embodiments, the whitelist manger 15 d may rearrange theorder of queued emails. In some embodiments, the whitelist manager 15 dmay advance or skip some emails ahead. In such a case, asender/originator of a queued email may influence or cause such email toadvance in the queue. In this regard the sender/originator of email maybe allowed to interact with the email system 10 so as to cause theadvancement of the queued email. For example, the email system 10 mayprovide an interface for the sender to provide something, e.g., monetaryconsideration, registration with the email system, personal information,etc., in exchange for advancing the sent email in the queue. The levelof consideration may determine how far the email is advanced in thequeue.

In exemplary embodiments, the miscellaneous component 15 f may implementany other processes needed to implement the email system 10 inaccordance with embodiments disclosed herein.

According to exemplary embodiments, the one or more components 15 a-fmay be at least in part implemented by one or more computer processes.These components 15 a-f may be stored separately or in combination withone or more other components on processor readable storage devices,which are operatively connected to one or more processors on one or morecomputers to run the software embodied as part of the engine. Inparticular, any software to implement processes herein may be stored onnon-transitory computer readable storage media.

In exemplary embodiments, the ratings access system 10 may include apassword gate engine 16, which may implement processes relating tocreating and implementing password gates.

FIG. 2B shows, according to an exemplary embodiment, a block diagramrepresentation of data stored in the one or more databases 40. In thisregard, for each of the emails users, the database 40 of the emailsystem 10 may include profile data 40 a, email messages 40 b, passworddata 40 c, whitelist data 40 d, non-whitelist data 40 e, queue data 40f, and/or miscellaneous data 40 g.

In embodiments, the profile data 40 a may include data related toidentifying a registered user of the email system 10, including, forexample, information related to the user's name, email, address,demographic data, etc. The profile data may include an address bookwhich includes contact information (e.g., email addresses, telephonenumbers, residential addresses, etc.).

The email message data 40 b, may be data including received, sent,and/or stored email messages. The password data 40 c, may be informationrelated to passwords (stored in some encrypted form, included hashes,for example) for registered users.

The whitelist data 40 d, may include information related to whitelistsettings. For example the whitelist data 40 d may include people oremail addresses which have been whitelisted. The whitelist data 40 d mayalso include authorizing passwords or codes, e.g., codes to allow anemail address or person and/or their sent address to be authorized andforwarded to the user.

The queue data 40 f, may include information related to emails whichhave been placed in the queue. The queue information may includeinformation related to the queued emails' order/slot/place in the queue.The queue data may have information indicating when the queue is to beadvanced and which emails are to be sent out.

FIG. 3 shows according to an exemplary embodiment, an exemplary methodfor whitelisting emails. At step 300, the email system 10, may receivean email addressed to a recipient user. At step 305, the email system 10may determine whether the email sender/originator is whitelisted. Forexample, the email system 10 may access a whitelist directory (forexample from the database 40), which may contain email addresses, IPaddresses, codes, individual names, and/or other information which maybe used for identifying a received email as being approved or associatedwith an approved user. In this regard, emails which are approved and/ordetermined to be sent from approved users can be delivered to therecipient user's email inbox.

Various methods may be used for determining whether an email is to beapproved and delivered to the recipient user's inbox. In someembodiments, a passcode may be inserted, for example, in a designatedarea of the received email. The email system 10 may determine whether aprovided passcode/password is proper, e.g., whether it matches anapproved passcode/password. The passcode/password may be unique to aparticular individual/email address, for a group of individuals/emailaddresses, and/or may be used by anyone. In some embodiments, thepasscode/password, may only be used once, by a sender. If the passwordis correct, then the originator/sender may be whitelisted, andsubsequent emails associated with the originator/sender may be approvedand delivered to the inbox and/or another appropriate folder. Accordingto exemplary embodiments, any number of suitable methods may exist for arecipient user and/or for the email system 10 for whitelisting emailsenders. For example, one such method may include simply adding to auser's whitelist directory, individuals the user has emailed.

At step 310, if the received message is determined to be approved and/orauthorized, the message may be delivered to the recipient user. Forexample, an approved email may be delivered to the inbox of therecipient user, may be sent to a folder associated with the user, may beforwarded to another email address, and/or another action may be takenor acted on the email according to the user's settings.

If at step 305 a received email is not approved and/or determined not tobe from a sender who is whitelisted, then at step 315, the email system10 may deliver, forward, store, and/or place the email in a queue. Thequeue may be an email repository for holding at least blocked ornon-approved email messages. In some embodiments, a user of the emailsystem 10 may access and/or retrieve queued emails intended for theuser. In some exemplary embodiments, not all emails that are notapproved may be queued. For example, such emails, including emailsidentified as containing a virus or the like may be automaticallydeleted or discarded by the email system 10. In another example, someemails identified as spam may be discarded and/or sent to a spam folder.

After placing the non-approved/non-authorized email in the queue, theemail system 10 may assign a queue number to the email. The queue orqueue repository may be part of the database 40. The assigned queuenumber may indicate queued emails positions and/or order in the queue.For example, if there already 20 emails in the queue, the most recentlyreceived queued email may be assigned a queue number of 21. Of course,the email system 10 may implement other methods for tracking or keepingthe order of queued emails. In one example, queue numbers may beassigned relative to the position to a reference email, for example thefirst email in the queue. In another example, no queue numbers may beassigned, but rather order/position of queued emails may be determinedor implemented based at least in part on how the email system 10 storesthe queued emails, for example storing the emails in order of reception.

In exemplary embodiments, the email system 10 may by default assignqueued emails according to a FIFO or related method. For example, insuch a manner, the most recent queued email may be assigned a queuenumber (or other suitable indicator) that places the email last in thequeue. However, in some embodiments, the email system 10 may notnecessarily place a most recently received email at the bottom of thequeue. For example, in some situations, the email system 10 may analyzethe queued email, e.g., its contents (subject line, body, etc.), itssender email address, the domain from where it was sent, etc. anddetermine to place and/or assign the email somewhere else in the queue.For example, in the determination of where to assign/place a recentlyreceived email which is to be placed in the queue, the email may beassigned a queue number or a position in the queue which differs fromthe end of queue position or place. In this regard, one or more factorsmay be used to determine where to place the email in the queue. Suchfactors may be based at least in part on settings associated with theemail system 10 and/or based at least in part on the user's settings.

At step 320, after storing and ordering the email in the queue, theemail system 10 may send a notification message to the originator of thequeued email using any suitable means, including, for example, textmessage, email, automatic voice call, fax, etc. The notification messagemay indicate to the originating sender information indicating the statusof the email. In this regard, the notification may indicate that theemail has been queued and may be delivered to the recipient at a latertime and may indicate the email's place or position in the queue.

FIG. 4 shows according to an exemplary embodiment, an exemplary methodfor maintaining and/or processing queued emails which can be implementedby the email system 10. At step 405, the email system 10 may checkand/or determine whether it has received an advancement requestregarding an email which has been queued. In embodiments, the queuedemail advancement request may be received through an email, text,message, etc. In some embodiments, the advancement request may beimplemented through an interface, including one provided through awebpage website via the Internet. The person who wishes to advance theiremail, may be required to provide information to identify themselvesand/or the email they wish to advance. The advancement request mayidentify one or more particular emails to be advanced.

If the email system 10 receives a queued email advancement request,then, the email system 10 may require a code or some other input toadvance the email. At step 410, the email system can receive a queueadvancement code. The advancement code may be inputted to the emailsystem 10 through an interface as previously mentioned, and/or may betransmitted to the email system 10 through any other suitable method.The person requesting advance may obtain one or more advance codes fromthe email system 10 and/or from the intended recipient user. Forexample, an individual requesting to advance an email, may provide someconsideration, e.g., monetary consideration, non-monetary consideration,including, for example, viewing an advertisement, signing up for anaccount with the email system 10, etc., in order to receive anadvancement code.

At step 415, the email system 10 may evaluate the received advancementcode with respect to the one or more emails to which an advancementrequest has been specified. If at step 415 the provided code is valid,then the respective emails may be advanced in queue. For example, anemail that was placed 50th in the email queue, may be placed at a higherpriority position, e.g., 30th, 20th, 15th, 9th, 1st, and/or any otherposition in accordance with embodiments herein. In this regard, theadvancement of one or more emails in the queue may cause other emails tobe deprioritized, or moved lower in the queue. In some embodiments, acode or setting may prevent one or more emails from being prioritized ordeprioritized. In one example, emails that have been advanced inresponse to the email system 10 receiving an advancement code may beprohibited or prevented by the email system from subsequently beingdeprioritized.

If at step 415, a provided code is determined by the email system 10 tobe invalid, then at step 420, the email system 10 may provide anotification of the defective or incorrect code. The email system 10 mayprompt the requesting party to reenter a code to provide a valid code.

FIG. 5 shows according to an exemplary embodiment, an exemplary methodfor maintaining and/or processing queued emails which can be implementedby the email system 10. In this regard, at step 505 the email system maydetermine whether to provide and/or deliver one or more queued emails tothe intended recipient user of the email system 10. As previouslydisclosed, one or more non-approved emails intended for a user of theemail system 10 may not be delivered to the inbox (or any other suitablefolder/area associated with the user's email account) and instead, maybe placed in an email queue. Then, at various times the email system 10may provide/delivery of one or more emails from the queue, which emailsmay then be delivered to the intended recipient user.

In exemplary embodiments, the email system 10 may decide when and howmany queued emails to deliver to the intended recipient user. In somecases, the email system 10 may by default deliver queued emails at oneor more intervals, such as, for example, every 15 minutes, every 30minutes, every hour, etc., to the recipient user. In other cases, theemail system 10 may delivery queued emails at one or more recurringtimes, e.g., 12 PM, or 12 PM on Tuesdays, or 12 PM on every otherTuesday, etc. In another example, the queued emails may be delivered inresponse to a request sent from the recipient user. In some embodiments,the queued email delivery times may be dependent on or a function of thenumber of emails in the queue with respect to the intended recipientuser. For example, the email system 10 may schedule more queued emaildeliveries when there are a lot or an excessive number of emails in thequeue, and/or may schedule less or less frequent queued email deliverieswhen there is a small number of emails in the queue.

If at step 505 the email system 10 decides to deliver one or more queuedemails to the email system 10, then at step 510 the email system 10 maydeliver a batch of emails. In exemplary embodiments, the email system 10may deliver a designated set (one or more) of the highest priorityemails, which may typically consist of the earliest queued emails notyet delivered to the recipient user. In some situations, the emailsystem 10 may deliver a percentage of the highest priority emails (e.g.,top 1%, top 5%, top 10%, etc.) or deliver a set number of highestpriority emails (e.g., top 3, top 5, top 10, etc.). In some situations,the number of emails to be delivered may be dependent and/or vary withthe number of emails in the queue. For example, when there is a largenumber of emails in the queue, the number of emails delivered in anemail queue batch to the recipient user's account (inbox, folder, etc.)may be greater than at other times when the number of queued emails issmaller. As with other features, the recipient user may specify how manyqueued emails are to be delivered at one or more user specified times.In embodiments, queued emails may be delivered depending on the size ofthe inbox. For example, when the number of emails in the email inbox islarge, queued emails may be delivered with less frequency. However whenthe number of emails in the email inbox is small, queued emails may bedelivered with more frequency. In some embodiments, queued emails may besent in response to one or more deletions of email from the email inbox.

After delivering an email queue batch, the email system 10 may updatethe email queue at step 515. With respect to the queued emails of aparticular email user, after one or more queued emails have beendelivered/forwarded to the user, then the remaining emails may berevised with their priority place/order adjusted accordingly. Forexample, if there had previously been 100 queued emails with 10 beingdelivered, emails previously assigned queue places or orders of 11-100may be readjusted to 1 through 90. In some embodiments, variations ofthe reordering/readjusting may be implemented by the email system 10 inaccordance with embodiments described herein.

At step 520, the email system 10 may send one or more notifications thatqueued emails have been delivered. Such notifications may be sent to therecipient user to indicate that they have new messages. In someembodiments, notifications may be sent to the originator of thepreviously queued email to indicate that their email now has beendelivered to the intended recipient account.

In yet another exemplary embodiment, the email system 10 may implementvarious rejection options. The email system 10 may delete or rejectoption received emails system 10 for which a corresponding validPIN/passcode is not concurrently or subsequently provided, emails thatare not whitelisted, and/or emails in which the intended recipient hasnot previously emailed the senders. That is the email system 10, may ormay not implement a queue.

In yet other exemplary embodiments, non-whitelisted emails may be placedin an email queue, but may be deleted if the sender of the email is notapproved by the time the queued reaches a certain position. That isinstead of delivering the email to the intended recipient user's inboxor other suitable location, the email is deleted unless the sender orrecipient user takes an appropriate action, e.g., the sender provides aPIN, the recipient user adds the sender to the whitelist, the senderprovides some consideration to the email system or recipient user, etc.

It will be understood that any of the above steps and/or elements can becombined and/or separated in any combination and/or separation thereofand/or taken in any order. For ease, the steps are described as beingsequential and/or in order. This is merely for ease of understanding andis not in any way meant as a limitation.

Now that exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been shownand described in detail, various modifications and improvements thereonwill become readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: (a) receiving, at an email server of an email system, an email addressed to a first user of the email system, the email server comprising one or more computers; (b) accessing, by the email server, one or more electronic databases stored on one or more computer-readable storage media operatively connected to the email server, the databases comprising information related to one or more respective registered users of the email system, the information comprising: (i) profile information including identification information for the respective registered users; (ii) whitelist information indicating one or more individuals and/or email addresses approved to send email to the respective registered users; (iii) email message data including email messages accessible to the respective registered users through an email interface; (iv) queue information including queued email messages assigned queue positions and not being accessible to the respective registered users through an email interface; (v) password information including whitelist password codes and queue advancement password codes for the respective registered users; (c) determining, by the email server, that the received email is approved to be sent to the first user based at least in part on the whitelist information; (d) based at least in part on the determination in step (c), storing the received email as a queued email message, and assigning a queue position to the received email; (e) sending, by the email server to a device associated with the received email, a notification message indicating that the received email has not been delivered to the first user and providing a signifier that indicates the queue position of the received email relative to queue positions of other received emails that are not approved; (f) determining, by the email server, that a predetermined condition has been met; (g) responsive to the determining in step (f), delivering, by the email server, a batch of one or more queued email messages to the first user; and (h) sending, by the email server to the device associated with the received email, a notification message that one or more queued email messages have been delivered.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining in step (f) comprises determining a frequency of time for delivery of queued email messages to the first user.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the frequency of time is a function of the number of queued email messages.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the frequency of time is a function of a size of an inbox associated with the first user.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining in step (f) comprises determining that the first user has sent a request to the email server.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein delivering, by the email server, the batch of one or more queued email messages to the first user comprises: (i) determining, by the email server, a priority for each queued email message; and (ii) delivering, by the email server, one or more queued email messages having a priority that exceeds a threshold priority.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: (i) updating the priority of each of one or more remaining undelivered queued email messages.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises comparing the IP address of the originator of the incoming email to a database of whitelisted IP addresses.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises comparing the IP address of the originator of the incoming email to a database of non-whitelisted IP addresses.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises comparing the email address of the originator of the incoming email to a database of whitelisted email addresses.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises comparing the email address of the originator of the incoming email to a database of non-whitelisted email addresses.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises comparing an alphanumeric code associated with an incoming email to a database of whitelisted alphanumeric codes.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises comparing an alphanumeric code associated with an incoming email to a database of non-whitelisted alphanumeric codes. 